New Zealand's top pest buster kills 234 possums, 204 rats, 69 mice, 14 hedgehogs, 6 stoats and 3 weasels in a year

234 possums, 204 rats, 69 mice, 14 hedgehogs, 6 stoats and 3 weasels
The team's tally for the year was 234 possums, 204 rats, 69 mice, 14 hedgehogs, 6 stoats and 3 weasels using 325 traps. Don has also spent time and money building 750 traps, some of which he has given to other pest control groups.

Don and the other 30 team members maintain traps in the Upper Marsden Valley, Barnicoat Ridge, Enner Glynn Bush and Kelly farm areas south of Nelson.

Rise in rare bird numbers - Kaka heard for first time in 20 years
Don - an orchard worker - has been a Forest & Bird member for 40 years, and he realised the need for pest control when he noticed a decline in birdlife while tramping. As the areas in which he works have been more intensively trapped, Don has seen a rise in numbers of bellbirds, tomtits, fantails, kakariki and weka. A kaka was heard recently in Upper Marsden Valley for the first time in 20 years.

"We are trying to get the birdlife back so the children can see them," he says. "Rats and possums are the main problem."

Pest control is critical to the protection of most native birds and other wildlife, and rebuilding their depleted numbers. Possums, rats, stoats and weasels eat eggs and chicks. Hedgehogs eat eggs, and possums also eat the plants and trees birds feed on.

Independent conservation organisation Forest & Bird has 50 branches around New Zealand, and most have pest control projects in reserves and private land using traps and pesticides.